With last Thursday’s potential ice storm looming, the City Council meeting had a hurry-up vibe that produced some postponements and truncated testimony. But Council managed to take another step toward appointing a city manager, postponed a reckoning with Dripping Springs wastewater, and extended Austin Pets Alive’s leasehold on lakeside property.

As anticipated, Thursday’s City Council meeting unveiled the two surviving candidates for Austin’s next city manager: Spencer Cronk, current Minneapolis city coordinator, and Howard Lazarus, current Ann Arbor city administrator (and former director of the Austin Public Works Department).

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett was in Austin last week, on a brief information tour of his Congressional District 35 (Austin/San Antonio), devoted primarily to a joint effort with the Texas Public Interest Research Group publicizing their 32nd annual “Trouble in Toyland” report itemizing dangerous children’s toys during the holiday season.

An arrest warrant’s out for former firefighter James Baker, who stands accused of invasive video recording, a state jail felony punishable by between 180 days and two years in jail, or a fine of $10,000. Police say Baker, an AFD lieutenant for 31 years before retiring in September, set up a camera inside of a women’s locker room to spy on co-workers.

João Paulo de Mello Connolly, a graphic and web designer for the Austin Justice Coalition, continues recovery this week after an illness sent him to the emergency room, and later the intensive care unit.